Board 5 pieces complete

In the photo you can see all 7 sandwiches pieces have been glued and are being weighted down by plate glass, this glass just happened to be in the warehouse at the time. It is very good for this task as it is a nice even weight across the sandwich length.

Building the Framing for board 5

This week we choose to work on the framing for board 5, Our progress this week included the marking and cutting of all of the lengths of Plywood and softwood. We could then cut mark out each sandwich piece for the hole drilling, once these holes were drilled we still had enough time to glue the sandwiches together. The photo shows Richard gluing the softwood to one side of the plywood.

4th Board Framing complete

We have now finish the framing for the 4th board, which is now going towards the other end of the layout, it is fairly simple with a slight bit of gradient work on it.

colliery line

This is another picture to show the gradients on the layout, in this you can clearly see the steep incline of the colliery line.

Adding Gradients to a Layout

By changing the height of the track bed risers you can put in gradients, in this picture the track bed at the back is the colliery line which is steeply inclined up to the colliery, the line at the front is the main line which slopes back down towards what would be the bottom of the valley

Boards 2 and 3 completed

After starting with the simplest board, which was the middle of the layout, we have now worked our way towards the colliery end of the layout. This shows the next 2 boards completed. This picture doesn’t show the gradients very well.

Board 1 completed

This photo shows Richard and Dave holding the first board. this is the underside of the first board shortly after completing it, this shows all 7 different sandwich pieces that are used for each board. This photo shows 2 people lifting the board, but it is very easy to lift on your own.

Fitting the track bed

After the framing was completed we could then cut out a piece of 9mm plywood to act as the track bed, this was the glued and screwed to the rises to give it a firm base.

Main construction

This is a shot of Richard and John building the first board, we are adding the first web that goes across the board and adds support for the track bed. In this shot the main fame for the board is already put together, it is important when screwing this together, that the frame is dead square

Screwing it together

All of the sandwiches have now to be screwed together to reinforce the glue, it is worth making a note of where the main construction screws are going, as you need to leave some space for these

Weighing it down

In this shot you can see us weighing the sandwich down while the glue goes off, it is important to ensure it stays dead flat at all times while gluing. To the left are other sandwiches we have made, all have gone though this process and will be used in making the first board. Nick, who runs a computer firm, would like me to ensure to any of his customers, these are old hard drives and aren't going to be fitted into their new PC

Gluing the second layer

This is a shot of us adding the second layer to the sandwich

Mistakes are to be learnt from

This is a shot of myself holding up the first mistake we (John) made, correct one is on the left. Please note the position of the hole on the right one is too low.

More shots of Board 1

This is a shot of Richard and Dave gluing the risers onto the plywood while Dave ensures they are flush to the edges.

More work on first Board

Work is continuing on the first board, is this picture 1’’ by 3’’ blocks of softwood are being stuck to the plywood with another layer to be stuck on the outside, this will make the sandwich construction. These softwood blocks are the risers that the track bead will sit on.

Work commences

This is a picture of David sanding back the holes on our first bits of plywood.

The holes save a little bit of weight but allow the wiring to go down the layout

This is a basic diagram of the track plan and layout of buildings and structures